Today, my Mailbox Monday features third time returning author Alan Jones, who published his latest novel on April 1st.

Having so enjoyed Alan’s first two forays into the world of fiction writing, there was no way that I was going to let the opportunity to get my hands on a copy of ‘Bloq’, pass me by 🙂

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BLOQ

A father waits in Glasgow’s Central Station for his daughter, returning home from London for Christmas.

When the last train has pulled in, and she doesn’t get off it, he makes a desperate overnight dash to find out why.

His search for her takes over his life, costing him his job and, as he withdraws from home, family and friends, he finds himself alone, despairing of ever seeing her again.

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ALANJONES

Alan was born in Glasgow 1960 and lived there for the first 22 years of his life. He now lives and works on the Ayrshire coast, in the animal health industry. He is married with four grown up children, and in his spare time reads, sails, makes furniture, plays football and watches films, when he’s not writing of course!

Alan Jones is his pen name, as wishes for the time being, to remain anonymous.

He started writing in 2003, but it took a few false starts over the next ten years before he completed his first novel, ‘The Cabinetmaker’. Despite one agent and one small publishing company showing interest, they didn’t take the book on, so he self published on Kindle, and latterly on Smashwords. It was favourably reviewed, but reader’s feedback threw up a few issues.

His second book, ‘Blue Wicked’, took a year to write and using the feedback he’d had from the first book, resulted in a shorter, more pithy novel than the first one.

Clicking on any of the book images, will connect you with their Amazon page.

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Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house during the last week. Be warned that Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Mailbox Monday now has a permanent home, where links may be added each week. So why not stop by, leave a link to your own Mailbox Monday post, oh! and don’t forget to leave a comment for our three new joint administrators, after all, we all like to receive them … ‘Mailbox Monday’

Absolutely! This would definitely be a nightmare scenario for any family, no matter who the missing person was. However, if it was a female member, who in this case I am assuming isn’t very old, that must definitely be your worst fears recognised?

Looking forward to reading this one, although those may not be the best choice of words!

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I hope that all is well with you and that the eyes continue to heal nicely 🙂

Alan’s first book, whilst still a crime thriller, was as much about relationships and the nature of human interaction.

Second time around, Alan came up with a dark, disturbing and very violent, gritty thriller, which had me on the edge of my seat and often cringing with anticipation about what was going to happen next.

Given the emotional nature of the premise, if ‘Bloq’ falls somewhere between these two previous storylines, then I shall be more than happy!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment. It is always good to hear from you.

I think that most people would echo those sentiments, even if the time came when I would have to pick up with the semblance of a ‘normal’ life, in order to support the rest of my family, the search would consume the remainder of my available free time.

I can quite understand how much strain this kind of scenario places on the rest of the family unit and any relationships. You quite often hear of the families of kidnap and murder victims, suffering irretrievable breakdowns, because of the stress placed on it and that in itself is just so sad on top of everything else they have endured.

I am intrigued as to just how Alan is going to address some of these issues in ‘Bloq’.

Alan does write an intense and deeply disturbing thriller, that’s why I have become such a fan.

‘Bloq’ already has me hooked, just by reading the few lines of the premise. In this day of instant communication, if one of my younger female relatives failed to arrive by public transport when they should have and they hadn’t contacted me to let me know, then I too would be panicking!

An empty mailbox isn’t always a bad thing. It means that you can catch up with some of the backlog you already have on your shelves and e-reader – Although speaking for myself, it never quite works out like that 🙂

Would I have jumped on the next train down to London from Glasgow, unless I had first of all exhausted every potential line of contact, to try and find out why she hadn’t arrived?

Who among us knows exactly how we might react until it actually happened to us? I can well imagine that it might tear apart normal family life and relationships, especially around Christmas time, which is the timeline for the start of this story.

I shall be sharing more excerpts from ‘Bloq’ over the coming weeks, so hopefully the picture will start to reveal itself.

Thanks for stopping by, it’s good to hear from you and I hope that all is well 🙂

Alan’s writing always challenges my thoughts and feelings, almost to their limits – that’s why I enjoy his work so much!

I’m not sure that every father would jump on the next train down to London from so many hundreds of miles away in Glasgow, but it sounds as though father and daughter must have been quite close, especially as he seems to be putting his search over and above every other member of the family, when surely they would all be suffering?

First Lines

The problem with getting your life back on track is that there’s usually another catastrophe hurtling down the rails to knock you off again. Case in point: in January my attorney fired the final volley in a running gun battle of a divorce that demolished my savings. Living single is lonely but also lower-priced. I […]